His father, Quazi Mohammad Ahsanullah, told reporters in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka that his son "fell into (a) trap."

This is nothing but a conspiracy. There is still a racist conspiracy there. The intelligence of the USA is playing with a mere boy whom we sent for higher study. The allegation against my son is not true at all. He could not even drive a car. How was he caught with a van?

– Quazi Mohammad Ahsanullah

Mr Ahsanullah, a senior vice president of a private bank, said he had asked the Bangladeshi government for help "so that our son will not fall victim to an arranged story".

The criminal complaint against Nafis said he had entered the US in January. Credit: Google

US officials said Nafis travelled yesterday by van with a man to a New York warehouse where Nafis assembled what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb.

But the man he believed to be an accomplice was in fact an undercover agent working for the FBI and the explosives were not in working condition.